Changes in Navigation Controls and Field-of-View Modes Affect Cybersickness Severity and Spatiotemporal Gait Patterns After Exposure to Virtual Environments.

Objective: To examine the effects of navigation controls and field-of-view modes on cybersickness severity and gait dynamics after cessation of exposure to a virtual environment (VE).

Background: The applications of virtual reality are increasing in various fields; however, whether changes in interaction techniques and visual contents could mitigate the potential gait disturbance following VE exposure remains unclear.

Method: Thirty healthy adults wore a head-mounted display to complete six sessions of 12-min run-and-gun tasks using different navigation controls (gamepad, head, natural) and field-of-view modes (full, restricted). Forward and backward walking tasks were performed before and after VE exposure. The degrees of cybersickness and presence were evaluated using questionnaires, along with the in-session task performance. Spatiotemporal gait measures and their variabilities were calculated for each walking task.

Results: The participants experienced less cybersickness with the head and natural controls than with the gamepad. Natural control, based on matching body movements, was associated with the highest degree of presence and best performance. VE navigation using the gamepad showed reduced cadences and increased stride times during postexposure forward-walking tasks. When the VE was presented via the restricted field-of-view mode, increased gait variabilities were observed from backward-walking tasks after VE exposure.

Conclusion: Body movement-based navigation controls may alleviate cybersickness. We observed gait adaptation during both ambulation tasks, which was influenced by the navigation control method and field-of-view mode.

Application: This study provides the first evidence for gait adaptation during balance-demanding tasks after VE exposure, which is valuable for designing guidelines for virtual reality interactions.